Tel Aviv University Student Group Project – Creating a World Spiritual Center

This week, I held a talk with students of the Architecture Department of Tel Aviv University. The topic of their senior thesis (requested by the university) is “Designing the International Kabbalah Center,” which needs to include all of our numerous services, centers of communication, broadcast center, classrooms, auditoriums, television and radio studios, offices for the creation and editing of our materials, center of Kabbalah dissemination, conference halls, centers for women and children, utility rooms, etc.

A group of nearly thirty students will be working on this project together. For the first time in the university’s history, students are given not individual assignments, but are required to work together on creating a World Spiritual Center. Thus, it was decided that the students are to work on this project together, as a group, and each student will receive credit for his or her mutual work just as if s/he had done it individually.

Tel Aviv University Student Group Project - Creating a World Spiritual Center

Good Books are Chosen by the Heart

Good Books are Chosen with the HeartThe Israel Book Week, an event in which most cities and suburbs of Israel host community book-selling exhibitions, is starting today and will continue until June 7.

The entire Bnei Baruch organization is preparing to meet with its many readers, as well as see many new faces, at this special event. Our stands will display all of our publications in all available languages, including Hebrew and English. Anyone who is in Israel during this period can check out where the Book Week is being held in their area, and come receive a free gift at our stand: a book of selected articles written by Bnei Baruch writers in the last year.

The Illuminati’s Coming to Get You… NOT!

The Illuminati\'s Coming to Get You... NOT!A question I received: We learn that our world is a reflection of the Upper World – “As it is above, so it is below.” We also learn that all the disorder among us is a result of our evolving egoism. One only needs to take a look at the world and our current situation to understand that it is all true. Nonetheless, secret theories circulate about families and clans called “Illuminati,” who engage in magic rituals in secret societies. Their main goal is to not only to gain world domination, but to gain the power of the Creator. Is there any truth to this?

My Answer: There are no secrets or miracles in our world, no matter how much we might want them to exist. We want to believe that the world is magical in some way, and more interesting than what we see. However, everything rests upon strict laws of nature. If one knows these laws, one can expand the limits of the perceivable world. We can develop additional qualities within ourselves and as such, feel a broader world. However, all of this also happens according to the physical laws of equivalence of form.

A question I received: All of this talk I hear about Kabbalah, regarding miracles and abilities to see supernatural occurrences – do these things indicate that one is advanced in Kabbalah?

My Answer: There are no miracles, mysticism, or anything of what you wrote in Kabbalah. Read Baal HaSulam’s article “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” and others (see the right sidebar’s “Kabbalah Source Materials” section for Baal HaSulam’s materials).

The Solution – Excerpts From The Writings Of The Last Generation By Baal HaSulam

Baal HaSulamThe Corrected Society
Accepting the law, “Love your friend as yourself,” word for word.
Just division of the profits so each will work according to ability and will receive according to need.
Public opinion should be based on “Love your friend as yourself,” so one who receives more than one’s needs will be considered a killer.

Transformation
The will to receive, imprinted in every creature, is in disparity of form from the Creator. Hence, one’s soul is separated from Him, since disparity of form separates in spirituality. It is therefore clear that what the Creator wants of us is equivalence of form, at which time we will cling to Him once more, as prior to our creation.

This is why Kabbalists said that one must cleave to the attributes of the Creator – “as He is merciful, so you are merciful” – so all our actions will be only to bestow upon our fellow person to the best of our ability. This is how we achieve the goal of cleaving to the Creator, equalizing with Him.

What one must do for oneself, in the necessary measure for the sustenance of oneself and one’s family, is not considered disparity of form, since “necessity is neither praised nor condemned.”
All these conditions will arise in the days of the Messiah. And when they accept this lesson we will be awarded complete redemption. [Read more →]

Onwards and Upwards

Onwards and UpwardsA question I received: I’ve been studying in a group for several years now. Lately I’ve noticed that I don’t want to study Kabbalah. Am I feeling this way because my egoism is growing? I don’t feel a desire to correct myself or to become similar to Him. Instead, I have a new desire, which I don’t understand. Why did it appear in me? For what purpose?

In addition, I can’t shake off the feeling that this desire isn’t mine, as though it came to me from outside. I don’t know what to do with it, and the more I try to ignore this desire, the bigger it gets.

My Answer: A person shouldn’t decide anything about his spiritual development ahead of time, because he has no idea how he needs to develop, and what states he needs to go through.

Therefore, he should make efforts to progress, and greet everything that reveals to and inside him, as necessary in his path of development. An ascent is always preceded by a state of confusion, lack of understanding – and then suddenly comes clarity, a new realization.

Perhaps you’re already in such a state as I’m writing you this answer. Or maybe you have already gone through it and are again searching, feeling weak and confused – and facing a new ascent?

Are You in This Picture?

I DON'T Think Like Everyone Else

Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Students Compared to Other People

Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Students Compared to Other PeopleA question I received: Can you say for certain that your students in Bnei Baruch differ from other people in any way?

My Answer: They’re no different from any other person in this world, except that within themselves, they feel the force that’s controlling them.

The Fates of Great Kabbalists

The Fates of Great KabbalistsA question I received: The history of Kabbalah shows that those who had great spiritual attainment had tragic fates. Where are the positive examples? And how can this attract people who already have enough misery in their lives?

My Answer: It’s true that when we take an outside look at the fates of Kabbalists, we find that they were persecuted, condemned, afflicted with sickness and so on, no less than other people. So where in all this do we see the Creator’s help!?

The fact is that a Kabbalist is very much connected with the entire world and receives suffering for everyone. However, he then raises the suffering he feels up to the Creator, and also receives the reward for everyone. Thus, when he feels the suffering, he also sees its perspective, the future salvation – the same as how a person who works very hard rejoices ahead of time, knowing that he will receive a great reward for his toil. But we, who are watching from the outside, only see his suffering and his efforts, whereas in reality he feels the Creator’s presence and grace in everything.

Reveal Perfection in Yourself

Reveal Perfection in YourselfA question I received: I study Kabbalah through the Internet, the TV and books. My entire worldview has changed – I now view everything differently and understand creation much better. I feel that I am on the right path. Nevertheless, I find it difficult to overcome the quality of anger. I realize how harmful it is, and that it’s making me suffer. How can I overcome my anger?

My Answer: A person shouldn’t change anything about himself, and if he tries, he will only do more harm. Everything in you is given from above, by the Light and by your Upper state. You differ from this Upper state in just one way: by “your attitude to what’s outside” (to nature, society, or the Creator). Instead of bestowal and love, our attitude fell to reception and hatred.

The only thing we have to accomplish in this life, and the reason life was given to us, is to return to that original attitude toward everything outside of us. As I return to that state (of bestowal and love to my surroundings), I begin to feel that I am one whole with them, and the quality (bestowal and love) that binds us together is called “the Creator.” It initially created us and intentionally “dropped” us into the opposite quality, so we could evaluate all the perfection of the state it created us in, and aspire to it on our own. And to the degree you aspire toward it, you will reveal it within you.

Related Posts:
* Turning Anger into Progress
* How to Use Anger

What Requests Does the Creator Respond To?

What Requests Does the Creator Respond To?A question I received: Does the Creator respond to requests for things that are necessary, or only to requests for correction?

My Answer: The Creator responds to all the requests in one’s heart, because we are talking about the Upper Light’s influence on our desire, and this influence is taking place all the time. The two stand one opposite the other. Nothing depends on a person, on his awareness of the Light’s constant influence on the Reshimo. He can only receive the desire for bestowal and love from his environment. The Upper Light is always pushing him toward this desire, by influencing the Reshimo. That is to say, by constantly influencing the Reshimo, the Light moves him closer to making the decision that it’s necessary to acquire the property of bestowal and love. However, it moves him along naturally, through blows. If a person, however, adds his own aspiration, which he receives from the group, from friends who aspire to it, then he himself evokes the Upper Light’s influence in the same direction. And now he already perceives the results of the Light’s influence positively, since he himself desired it, instead of perceiving it negatively, the way we usually do: When we desire greater egoistic fulfillment, we instead receive an even stronger push toward bestowal, and experience even greater suffering.

A question I received: According to what you said, if two hundred million Muslims will really wish for Israel to disappear from the face of the earth, will their desires come true?

My Answer: All desires of all people are included within the common soul of Adam. However, each desire has its own weight or influence, which depends on many things: What group of souls does the desire belong to – just like in the body some organs are more important than others. It also depends on what they are asking for – whether their appeal is directed toward the goal of creation or against it; whether it’s a desire to hate or to love, and so on.